There’s some positive news this time around: The city’s intention of having the property redeveloped didn’t go AWOL.

Murray Wikol has been discussing with the city a redevelopment of the 107,000-square-foot building at 7600 E. Jefferson Ave. that closed its doors in 2003 and has since fallen prey to scrappers. He said it’s still very early in the process, but things are progressing.

“From Stage No. 1 to Stage No. 100, we are probably at Stage. No. 15,” he said, declining to elaborate on how the property would be redeveloped.

Wikol was in the news earlier this year when his company, Troy-based developer ProVisions LLC, was named as a 50-50 joint-venture partner for the $31.9 million redevelopment of the vacant Southwestern High School into a manufacturing campus and training center for about 650 employees for Sakthi Automotive Group USA Inc.

He pointed to that project as an example of how long it may take to get an armory deal done, should one materialize, saying the Sakthi project took three years to come to fruition.

“It’s still early on,” he said. “It’s a challenging situation due to the degradation of the (armory) roof. It’s an asset that should be redeveloped and something that would be a true gem to the city, but it’s going to take a lot of time, patience and money to redevelop it.”

The ProVisions website says the company, founded in 1984, owns, finances and develops real estate valued at up to $500 million. Some of ProVisions' previous Michigan projects include the 262,000-square-foot North American Commerce Center in southwest Detroit on West Fort Street west of Livernois Avenue, the 18,000-square-foot Research Technology Park in Ann Arbor and the 25,000-square-foot Bay City Business Center in Bay City.

The company has also developed real estate in Mississippi and France.

Particularly with development in France, that indicates that Wikol has at least some sway and credibility in repurposing rundown buildings — a category in which the armory certainly fits.

“We do a lot of historic stuff,” Wikol said.

“Compared to some of the stuff we’ve seen, especially in Europe, it’s not that bad. But economically, can you afford to put all the money in necessary to keep the historic structure and nature intact? I have seen (buildings) where the roof is totally collapsed and the walls are falling in and it’s a 500-year-old chateau and we have gone in and redone that type of building. But you have to have a purpose and the means and a business plan.”

Sakthi, a subsidiary of India conglomerate Sakthi Group, plans to retrofit the school to include office space, an educational aspect tied to the community and warehousing space, CEO Lalit Verma told Crain’s in May, when the project was announced.

Wikol’s involvement with the Brodhead, constructed in 1929 and 1930, apparently came after the Sakthi deal was announced.

Sitting on 4.5 acres, the armory was named after Capt. R. Thornton Brodhead, who as lieutenant commander of the Michigan naval force lobbied the city and state for construction of the armory.

The site is known for its historic nature, having served as the location of a Franklin D. Roosevelt presidential stump speech in 1932. It was also where Joe Louis fought his first amateur bout that same year, losing to British boxer Johnny Miller in two rounds.

During World War II, the armory was where more than 1,000 sailors were housed and trained in electrical and diesel operations.

At one time, it had been home to the most extensive Michigan collection of federal Works Progress Administration artwork created through funding by one of its subsidiaries, the Federal Art Project.